Ledgestone tile in a shower stall?

Maurizio, I am building a house and the tile that we picked for the shower walls is a ledgestone desert sand (6"height x 24"width)consisting of smaller pieces of rock glued together. After examining the tile, I noticed small pin holes within the glue line of the tile. My worry is that water will penetrate behind the tile and compromise the bond with the backerboard. What do you recommend? also, assuming your recommendation offers support for us to go ahead with the tile, what sealer do you recommend? thanks in advance, rick and raj

 

Dear Rick:

While you're right at being very concerned that water wouldn't find its way behind your tiles, I wouldn't worry too much about the pinholes that you can detect in the glue. That is typical and it usually doesn't go any deeper than 1 mm.

Just in case, do make double sure, use an actual pin and check if the hole is deep. If so, fill it with some superglue (crazy glue and such). If not don't bother.

 

“ what sealer do you recommend? ”

 

None whatsoever. No stone should ever be sealed in a wet environment.

You only have two types of stones for a shower stall: the good ones and the bad ones. If they're bad, the sealing will only make them worse. If they're good, the sealing could be chancy and then they may not be so good anymore.

Where does you tile stand in the rating?

That is the real problem: I have no idea, for I'm totally unfamiliar with those kinds of tiles. But if they are very absorbent, I would not consider them.

 

Now remember, it's never too early to think about the proper maintenance of your stone. The issue of what you'll be doing day in and day out to your stone is – as it should be intuitive – vastly more important than its sealing (if and when possible and/or advisable) and it's all too often neglected. As you can tell by reading many of this site's postings, you're not likely to get good information about routine care from your dealer or installer. Don't become another statistic! By logging into the Helpful Hints section of our website at:   http://www.mbstone.com/HH_promo/helpful_hints.htm , you will be able to get the short version of our maintenance guidelines at no charge. The full version of it – a 7-page document considered by many as an industry benchmark – is available in pay-per-download format in our Educational Literature section at:   http://www.mbstone.com/literature/literature.htm .  

And remember, every single penny of the cost of the literature will be used to support this site and its cause: your cause.

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Ciao and good luck,

Mauri zio Bertoli

 

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